THE RAID ON DOWNING STREET

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXIII, Issue 9089, 7 March 1908, Page 7

THE RAID ON DOWNING STREET

Talking of the- suffragists, their raid on Downing street was a cleverly planned affair, and came very near being a success. The raiders actually penetrated the sacred precincts of No. 10. "The raid began at halfpast eleven—after most of the Ministers Lad assembled for a Cabinet meeting—with the arrival of four women in motor-cabs. These women waited until a horse brougham appeared at the end of the street, and then rushed across the road crying “Votes for women!” “We want votes!” Two of them had previously fastened chains about their waists, and in a monent they slipped these round railings and fastened them with padlocks. The police were astonished, and it was some time before the chains were broken. All the time the cry of “Votes for women!” was kept up. This was a picturesque attempt at martyrdom, but it was merely a clever ruse to engage the attention of the police while a more daring plan was executed. While the constables were wrestling with the four women, two women who had arrived in the horse brougham quietly opened tJ*e door of No. 10 and stepped[inside, pursued by the police. To get to the Cabinet chamber one has to cross a hall, go down a long corridor, through another door, and cross another lobby. The intruders got no further than the swing-doors leading into the long corridor, when they were seized by policemen and attendants and carried out. However, they left their boot-marks on the floor, which was perhaps consolation to them. They fully intended to enter the sacred Cabinet chamber while the Cabinet was sitting. If we remember rightly, only one outsider during recent times has ever seen the Cabinet at work, and that was purely by accident. One of the raiders told an interviewer that they wanted to discuss the question of female suffrage and the King’s Speech, at the Cabinet table, a wish that calls up an amazing scene. These agitators seem to have delightfully untrammelled ideas of the respect due to sacred British institutions.